1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to an apparatus for handling an optical card, which may, for example, be used as a credit card, and more in particular to an optical card handling apparatus for optically recording and reproducing information to and from an optical card generally rectangular in shape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An optical card has attracted much attention lately for possible applications as credit cards, cash cards or the like. Such an optical card compact in size and light in weight is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 61-158034, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Such an optical card is generally rectangular in shape and it defines an optical recording medium on which information may be optically recorded and from which recorded information may be optically read. In accordance with the teachings of this Patent Application, however, a light beam is scanned across an optical card by either moving the optical card or an optical pick-up relative to the other in order to record or read information to or from the optical card. In such a system in which scanning is effected due to a linear relative motion between the optical card and the optical pick-up, the overall structure of the optical card handling apparatus tends to become complex and the access speed or recording and/or reproducing speeds tend to be slower.
Even with an optical card rectangular in shape, if a recording track is formed circularly in a manner similar to the recording track typically formed on an optical disc in an optical information recoding and reproducing apparatus using an optical disc as a recording medium and the optical card is supported to be rotatable, it is expected that the access speed and the recording and reproducing speeds are significantly shortened. However, since an optical card is generally rectangular in shape and not circular as in the case of an optical disc, various problems may be encountered in handling such an optical card in a manner similar to an optical disc because of differences in shape. One such problem which may be expected is the manner of positioning an optical card at a loading position properly.